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You've heard it from outsiders, now one of the closet people to Anderson Silva is chiming in on the possible influence his Octagon antics may have had on the jaw-dropping outcome of his fight against Chris Weidman last weekend (July 6, 2013) at UFC 162.

According to Ed Soares -- Silva's friend and manager -- "The Spider" may have taken his taunting a little too far in Las Vegas, Nevada, which ultimately led to his unconsciousness and the crowning of a new 185-pound champion.

But, those antics, or "risks" as Soares describes them, are what makes Silva who he is and what makes him such a fan favorite. In other words, Saturday simply wasn't the Brazilian's night.

His words on "The MMA Hour:"

"I think he went out there and was taunting him and doing certain things Anderson does once in a while. There's a possibility he may have taken it too far this time. And unfortunately he wasn't able to walk away with the W. You move left when you should have moved right, and your night can end. Unfortunately, Anderson has a tendency to walk on that tightrope of taking risks. It's part of the reason people like to watch him fight is because he takes those type of risks. Unfortunately, Saturday night, didn't go his way."

And as far as conspiracy theories claiming Silva threw the fight, Soares says that's just "stupid."

He vents:

"People have all these conspiracy theories. It's stupid. It's nonsense. Yeah ... I plan to get knocked out. C'mon. Who plans to get knocked out like that? If he was planning to do that that, why wouldn't he just have tapped to the leglock? C'mon. I'm going to plan to get knocked out? That's ridiculous. Anderson doesn't like to lose, he just got knocked out. Take nothing away from Chris Weidman. ĎOh, that was a lucky shot.' Well, you know what? 100 percent of the punches you don't throw, don't land. He threw a punch and it landed."

"All American" was able to dethrone "The Spider" in devastating fashion, putting him to sleep with a well-placed left hook -- a punch that was set up after Silva pretended to be dazed and wobbly by a mirror-image strike seconds earlier.

And unlike Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar before him, Weidman was able to keep calm and collected, not allowing Siva to freeze him with his taunting.

Naturally, Soares is bummed to see Silva lose, but he says he is very happy for Weidman's success given the fact that he's gone through so much adversity of the last year with his shoulder injury and the destruction of his home by Hurricane Sandy.

Furthermore, Soares is confident the "respectful" "All American" will be a good UFC champion.

As far as what's next for Silva, Soares says rest and quality time with his family is all that's on "The Spider" agenda for the time being and fighting is the furthest thing from Team Silva's plans.

Dude, Iím a wrestler. Iím the best wrestler in MMA. Wrestling IS, was and always has been the most dominate form of mix martial art on the planet. Thatís all there is to it. We all know it, some people want to fight it, some people want doubt it but wresters rule the MMA world. -
Ben Askren

ah...because soares hasn't been a blight on the career of Anderson Silva for the last 5 years, calling him out for the understatement of the month automatically makes people haters.

Got it.

rh

All manner of men came to work for the News: everything from wild young Turks who wanted to rip the world in half and start all over again -- to tired, beer-bellied old hacks who wanted nothing more than to live out their days in peace before a bunch of lunatics ripped the world in half.